Maybe Baby
by typinghands
Summary: Bella Swan wants a baby desperately but knows with her tragic past a romantic relationship isn't in the cards. Enter Edward Cullen, her handsome, stoic boss who may be a real jerk but has great DNA. Can two adults make a baby, no complications, no feelings? AH
1. Chapter 1

It was love at first sight.

Unfortunately for Bella Swan's therapist, the object of her affection wasn't a man. Well, not unless you counted a day-old infant as a man.

Her best friend Alice beamed at her from the hospital bed, holding the tiny, swaddled infant like a trophy.

"Declan Cullen is here." She announced, raising him a little higher as if Bella needed proof.

"I can see that." Her voice was a mix of mild amusement and genuine adoration. "And he's perfect."

"Want to hold Mr. Perfect, Auntie?" The title aunt was not hers by blood or marriage, but borne of friendship and love. With Alice having married into a large, loving family like the Cullens, she hadn't been sure it would be bestowed on her, as Declan would have plenty of aunts and uncles, but was touched it had.

"Of course!" She reached over eagerly, almost too eagerly, for the baby. Alice already had him in designer baby gear, blue houndstooth that was both absurd and adorable. She nestled him in her arms, carefully supporting his tiny head.

His little eyes were closed, his rosebud mouth bowed together. The cap was pulled over his head, but dark downy hair peaked out. She ran a finger over it, so soft. She touched his tiny hand, the little fingers splayed out. She inhaled deeply, taking in the sweet, powedery smell of baby.

He really was perfect.

Suddenly, Bella wanted to cry, wanted to tell Alice to soak it in, but she tamped it down. _Not here, not today, _she told herself.

"They should bottle the smell of baby." She said instead. "Put it in a Yankee Candle."

"They'd sell millions- especially if they put it in a bottle you could spray at them when were smelly teens and not so cute." Alice agreed.

She knew how hard this was for Bella. She was already second guessing asking if she wanted to hold the baby.

Luckily, that was when her husband Jasper came in. His arms were of bags, a wide, eager smile on his good looking face.

"I have returned, bearing farm to table food and ugly, comfortable underwear." His voice dripped in happiness. He beamed at Bella, as he leaned in to grab Declan. "How'd I do?"

"You did good, daddy." Bella beamed back- it was impossible not to. Fatherhood suited him. "Although, he looks just like his mommy…" She teased.

"What! He looks just like me!" Jasper growled in mock outrage, plopping down on the bed next to Alice, one arm around her, the other holding their son. They belonged to each other, the three of them, and already, in the space of a day had become a family, a unit. It made her ache with longing as much as holding little Declan had.

"I don't know, babe," Alice teased, looking at him closely, then the baby, then back again. "I'm not seeing a whole lot of Cullen."

"Have the Cullens been by to see Declan yet?" Bella asked. She had known the Cullens for years, from working at the family publishing company in the beginning, and later by being the best friend of Alice. They were a loud, loving bunch that adored children. She really should have asked how -many- of the Cullens had been by.

"Everyone but Edward- he's in London for work." Jasper explained, as if she wouldn't know her own wasn't due back to the states until tonight. "They have showered him with gifts and kisses. Poor little guy had lipstick on his cheeks after my mum got through with him."

"How many grandchildren does this make for Esme now?" Despite working at the family company where most of the Cullens worked in some capacity and in the same building as the in-house childcare, she didn't have an exact idea.

"Declan's number nine- and that's not even counting any from Carlisle's side." The marriage of Carlisle Cullen to his widowed sister-in-law may have shocked some a decade ago, but hardly anyone could deny the pair were happy- so happy, even their own children couldn't begrudge them it.

"He won't be the youngest for long!" Alice added. "Charlotte's about to pop."

Bella whistled lowly. Jasper's brother Peter and his wife already had four kids. Four adorable kids, true, but all were under 10. The Cullen Corp daycare was going to be quite full indeed, at the rate all the Cullens were reproducing.

Her ruminating was interrupted by a brisk knock on the door.

"Come in!" Alice chirped.

Instead of a nurse, or some distant friend, in walked Edward Cullen.

Jasper's cousin had a bag slung over a broad shoulder, evidently coming straight from London. His burnished, mahogany hair and grey suit were both slightly mused from the long plane ride. He looked tired, but good. Then again, Edward Cullen always looked good.

Like all the Cullens he had tawny, gold eyes, and sharp, sculpted features. Unlike the rest of the Cullens, his features were merciless. Edward could have been an artist's model for an angry Greek god or a merciless general.

The only softness on his face was his mouth, a full-lipped mouth that women's magazines would say begged to be kissed. But that mouth was usually bowed in disappointment or in a sardonic smirk, rarely softening his harshly handsome features.

She herself had once briefly thought Edward Cullen was an impressive specimen of manhood. But working with him had quickly enlightened her- Edward Cullen might be handsome, but he was a handsome ass.

That handsome ass caused her best friend to squeal in delight the moment he walked into the hospital room.

"You came straight from the airport!" Alice gushed. "Declan's first international visitor."

Jasper smiled at his cousin teasingly. "I didn't think babies were you thing, Edward."

Edward tilted his lips into a brief, fleeting grin. "I figured this guy could be my exception. Declan? Is that what you guys are calling him?"

"Declan Jasper Cullen." Alice said, clearly enjoying the sound of it. "Want to hold him?"

"Uh," Edward looked momentarily uncertain and would clearly rather do anything else.

But somehow, after his protests were disputed, and enough hemming and hawing, Edward ended up holding the baby.

_Like it or not, _Bella thought reluctantly, _he looks good holding a baby. _He was looking at Declan with a thoughtful, appraising look. It was the same way he looked at monthly finance reports. Edward had surely seen plenty of babies with the way his family overflowed with them. But, even if he had been reluctant to hold him in the first place, now that he was he was giving Declan the due diligence he deserved.

Finally, he gruffly informed the doting new parents, "He's a good baby."

While it may have been an understatement (Bella was quite confident Declan was an amazing, wonderful baby), it was clear he was touched. Almost as touched as her.

The rest of the visit passed in a blur, a desperate tugging forming in her chest the longer she spent in the room. It wasn't until Bella was lying at home in bed that she knew what she needed. She needed to have a baby.


	2. Chapter 2

Ch 2

Dr. Angela Webber was a wearer of bright colored nail polishes and collector of small porcelain frogs. Today's polish was the color of Hi-C. She was tapping her juicebox nails on a yellow legal pad. Bella had been meeting her weekly for the past three years and knew she was growing impatient with the silence. Angela was a fast-paced therapist who insisted their 50 minute hour be fully utilized.

"I'm having a baby." Bella announced finally.

Angela stopped tapping her nails, caught off guard for the first time ever. "That is big news- who is the father?" She knew that Bella's love life was far from active.

"I don't know yet-" Bella began.

Angela cut her off, "You have more than one potential father to your baby? You spent the last six sessions complaining about work, absolutely nothing else, no matter how much I prodded, and this never came up how?!"

"There is no father." As amusing as an aghast Dr. Webber was, these sessions were expensive. "I've decided I want to have a baby, I'm in the planning stage."

"Well...I'm happy to hear you're entering back into the dating scene and contemplating a family. All big goals take planning before you can actualize them. This is a wonderful milestone." Angela seemed just short of ecstatic. She had unsuccessfully tried to nudge Bella onto dating apps, meetup groups, and setups for the past couple of years with a determined persistence.

"I'm not going to date." She shifted uncomfortably. This was her first time saying it allowed. "I'm going to use a sperm donor. I want a baby, but I don't want a husband."

Angela sat up straighter, a concerned look on her face. "Bella, this is a regression. You've made so many positive steps over the past years- cleaning out your old house, making this place your own, finding a career you're passionate about, and forming a community. How you handled your best friend's pregnancy was beautiful. But now you're casting aside all that progress and retreating to where you feel safe- on your own."

Bella flinched as if hit. "Having a baby isn't safe. It's terrifying, but I know it will be worth it. I thought you'd be proud of me, going after what I want."

Angela's voice took on an empathetic tone. "I know you want a baby, but I know you want more. You want a romantic partner, you're just too scared to open yourself up again."

"I'm thirty-one years old and haven't dated in four years. I don't want to put a contingency plan on my own happiness. I don't want to go on dates with men, hoping we're compatible, hoping it lasts, just so I can get what I really want."

"Thirty-one isn't old. You have years of natural fertility left." Alice pointed out. "Why not take your time and think this through? Sperm donation will still be an option in a year."

"I don't think anything will change in a year. Or two. Or ten." Bella stubbornly insisted. "I had my happy ending already. I had the white picket fence. It isn't for me anymore. But this is." She thought of tiny Declan and how right it had felt holding him. Her new baby would be its own person. Her baby would have a drastically different life than she had once imagined for her children.

Her child would never run with chubby toddler legs to greet their father. There would be no dad holding the back of a first bike, offering reassurances. Her child would never even know if they inherited their father's eyes. More than that, there would be no close extended family. No nights with grandma and grandpa, or playing with cousins. No loud hectic Christmases or Thanksgivings. But her child would have her and she would be enough.

"Bella, you still deserve a happy ending." Angela said firmly. "Bad things, truly tragic things can happen, but they don't make us less worthy of happiness."

"What if this is my happy ending?" Bella asked softly. She wouldn't, couldn't, repeat the past. But she could make something new, something different and beautiful in its own right.

Angela sighed. Sometimes being a therapist felt a lot like being the doomed prophet Cassandra. You could advise a client, but it was not her job to force her client to bend to her will; Her job was to guide them through their decisions and provide support.

"While I wish you would consider waiting, it seems your mind is made up." Alice conceded. "What is the next step?"

"Finding the right sperm." Bella replied, as if it were obvious.

* * *

The sperm donor profiles were all online now. The clinic had given each donor a pseudonym, she guessed to personalize them. Alec seemed a lot more fatherly than Donor A6HTW6, she mused wryly.

There was an impressive, sophisticated filtering system for almost every characteristic you could imagine. But for now she found herself clicking almost aimlessly through the roulette of potential donors.

David was a law student who had played college soccer. Keyton was a six foot tall writer with a fondness for hiking. Preston seemed a little bland, but his profile featured a childhood picture of him as an adorable, freckled-nosed boy in a Superman cape.

It felt like online-dating, with the stakes heightened x1000. This wasn't risking a boring dinner date or night of mediocre sex. It was creating a life and suddenly every decision seemed pivotal. Did a fondness for french fries indicate a secret picky eater or texture issues? Was "modern-day philosopher" code for unemployed?

She was mulling over this at her desk when Edward Cullen walked out of his office and over to her desk.

The educational-tech strategy team at Cullen Publishing was housed in a large circular room. Large, wall-length windows overlooked a lovely courtyard and let in natural light. The office was open-concept, with white Nordic desks and brightly colored office chairs. There were only two closed off rooms- Edward's office and a small conference room.

"I hope my email isn't giving you that pained look." Edward said mildly.

Bella looked up and resisted the urge to close her laptop in embarrassment. As if Edward somehow knew she'd been shopping for sperm on company time.

"Uh, actually," She mumbled, red she imagined from her toes to her hairline. "I seem to have missed the email. I've been in the trenches on Classpin." Classpin was the curriculum crowdsourcing project she was extremely passionate about. It was her work on Classpin that gotten her moved to the new tech strategy team six months ago under Edward.

"It's fine." Edward's voice was short and to the point. She had worried he'd be a real ass as a boss, but for the most part he was a terse, distant boss. "Why don't you just come by my office and we can hash it out now."

It wasn't a question. Edward was a Cullen and this was Cullen Publishing. He was, as far as she could tell, good at his job. He was undeniably hardworking, the first to come in and the last to leave. But it was his name on the building and she'd heard the term "King Cullen" thrown out before for a reason.

"Sounds good." She replied, grabbing her laptop and walking the few steps to his office.

Edward's office had the same white desk as the rest of the team's. He had no photos or personal items. Two sleek black chairs faced his desk and she sat in one uncomfortably. Being around Edward always made her uncomfortable, especially alone.

Edward was sitting leaned back behind the desk, his legs stretched before him. It was a cocky, dominant pose. "Do you have a passport?"

She nodded. Before she relocated to the city, she had tried to Eat, Pray, Love her misery in Europe. It had lasted two weeks before she came back with her tail between her legs.

"Strauss liked my proposal in London. They need me and you in London to close the deal." He smiled then, a tilted grin that revealed a never before seen dimple.

"Wow, when?" This was not an ideal time in her life for a business trip, but she imagined there was a certain level of enthusiasm she should be showing. Their new tiny team was closing a huge deal and most people would love a business trip to London.

"Well," Edward put his hand behind his head. His sleeves were rolled up revealing his impressive forearms. "That depends on when you're free. Sooner is better than later."

"As long as I'm here for Declan's christening, I'm open." _When she was free,_ she smiled slightly. Her scant social life was hardly an obstacle to work. It was Edward who was an Olympic dater.

"Let's say, we fly in Sunday. That will give us 72 hours to prep, and we can shake off the jet lag for Monday morning meetings. We'll stay for a week." Edward apparently was fine with discarding whatever plans he had for business.

"Sounds good." Bella lied instantly.

"Really?" He inclined his head then, his tawny eyes curious. "No pet you need to find a caregiver for?" His voice deepened slightly. "Or boyfriend you need to check in with?"

"What about you- no nagging girlfriend?" She mocked.

He laughed, as if surprised by her push back. "No girlfriend, no cat, no houseplants. Nothing I wouldn't leave in a heartbeat for the Strauss deal."

"Excellent." Bella chirped, getting up to leave. As if finding a sperm donor wasn't stressful enough, she was now going to spend a week with the most difficult person she knew, working on the most important business deal of her life. What could go wrong?

**AN:** Thanks so much for the follows and all the reads! Feel free to review and share what you think. What do you think of Edward so far? Do you think Bella pursuing motherhood is the right choice?


	3. Chapter 3

Ch 3

The days before the trip passed quickly. Bella spent her hours at work relentlessly preparing presentations and reviewing. At home, she looked over hundreds of sperm donor profiles, favoriting the ones that seemed most promising, and made an appointment with her gynecologist after the trip to get everything checked out.

Edward seemed just as busy. He spent most of the workday cloistered in his office, calling in employees to drill. The developers seemed to get the brunt of his frustrations, as he demanded perfection on every part of the platform. There could be no glitches in London, he reminded the team daily, everything had to be perfect.

One night he even slept at the office. When she came in exceptionally early, he was still sprawled out on the orange sofa in the collaboration area of their office. His mahogany hair rumpled, his dress shirt wrinkled beyond repair.

He'd looked truly, breathtakingly handsome laying there. Asleep, whatever robbed his face of softness, what left him glaring at the world, was gone. His lips weren't curled in derision, but tilted slightly upward. If he was dreaming, he liked what he was dreaming of. A hint of a dimple showed in his cheek. She felt an inexplicable envy for whatever, whoever, could make Edward Cullen look so free. She was admiring what a pretty picture he made when his eyes opened.

For a moment, he smiled at her, his honey-colored eyes sleepy and warm. She felt a sudden urge to climb on the couch with him, to unbutton that wrinkled shirt. She wanted to turn his warm honey eyes hot and see if his lips were as soft as they looked. Then Edward blinked, and his mouth firmed, "What are you doing here?" His voice sounded even more disapproving than usual, still grainy with sleep.

"I work here." Bella willed the stupid want to not show on her face. She hoped her voice sounded light and unbothered, as if talking to a sleep-rumpled Edward laying down was no different than crisp, desk Edward. "What are you doing sleeping here?"

Edward shifted up, smoothing his auburn hair with a hand. "Late night, early morning."

"Maybe once we get back from London, you can sleep in an actual bed again." It was the sort of friendly, amiable comment she would have made to any colleague, but saying it to Edward felt bold.

But he only shrugged, stalking out of the room. He returned in fifteen minutes with wet hair from the office gym showers and a large cup of coffee. They both ignored the others existence for the rest of the day. Or at least Bella tried to.

* * *

"I'm sorry, your flight has been cancelled." The front desk attendant for the airline didn't seem particularly apologetic. She had faced legions of annoyed, sometimes belligerent customers and Bella in her mustard cardigan with a neat bun seemed unlikely to put up too much of a fuss. "Weather has delayed our flights on the East coast and your plane is stranded there. We can get you on another flight tomorrow afternoon. Until then, we just don't have any planes in Seattle to make the transatlantic flight."

Bella blinked. She had been dreading certain aspects of the trip since she learned of it. But never had she anticipated a delayed flight. Her head was buzzing when the clerk sighed, "Miss, do you want to be on tomorrow's flight or not?"

"Let me check with my boss," She said, stepping to the side. She was dialing Edward's number, when she saw him striding to her.

"Come on, we're taking a different flight." Edward didn't seem to think she needed any details. He was so used to people following his orders without question.

"I thought there weren't any available planes." Bella shifted her heavy bag from one shoulder to the other. She had packed too many clothes.

"We're flying to Vegas, then jumping on a flight to London. It'll add some hours to hours to our trip, but it won't set us back a whole 15 hours we can't afford to lose."

Edward eyed her luggage. She had a small leather backpack that held her computer and a few personal items and a khaki duffel that held her clothes. He on the other had had a leather messenger bag and a sleek black, rolling bag- the kind that was designed to make it quickly and efficiently across airport terminals. "Here, give me your bag. It'll go quicker."

She reluctantly handed it over, but Edward tossed it over his broad shoulder, unbothered by the weight that had made her walk hunched. Within 30 minutes, Edward had smoothly navigated the bustling airport crowds, checked them in, and they were sat in plush, first-class seats.

"I've never sat in first-class before." Bella confessed.

"Yeah?" Edward had been digging in his messenger bag, but stopped to look at her. "It was all they had left. Now I'm glad. We should celebrate." He pressed the flight attendant button.

"Celebrate what? Our bourgeois seats?"

"Sure, coach sucks, let's celebrate that. Or celebrate the miracle of flight that is these huge hunk of metal hurtling through the air at 20,000 feet." He shrugged his broad shoulders, his face transformed by a crooked, all-too appealing grin. "Or maybe we just celebrate because it's all free in first class."

"All of the above sounds good to me." Bella was surprised to realize she actually wanted to have a drink with _this _Edward, to joke with him, to see his handsome features softened by that lop-sided smile.

The flight attendant came over then. "How can I help you?"

"We'll have some champagne over here. We're celebrating." Edward ordered for them.

The flight attendant beamed, returning quickly and eagerly with two glasses. "Is it ya'll's anniversary?" She took them for a couple. Bella realized with embarrassment she was contributing to the misconception, with the way she was leaned in, angled towards Edward.

"We're going to London." Edward sidestepped the question, flashing her and the flight attendant a brilliant, wicked grin. "It's our first international trip together."

"That is lovely!" The poor, sweet flight attendant positively melted. She walked away with a huge smile on her face.

When the flight attendant left, Bella looked at Edward curiously. "Why did you let her think we were together?"

"She wanted to hear a nice story from the cute couple ordering champagne. Why not let her have that?" Edward tilted his glass to her. "Cheers, to all of the above."

"All of the above." Bella echoed, clinking her glass to his.

Edward looked a little embarrassed, his eyes shifted down, and she couldn't help but find that a little enamouring. She had always thought of Edward as a jerk, an ass, but right now he was acting the complete opposite. _No, _she reminded herself, _this is how he is acting to your face. Don't forget what he said when didn't know you were listening. Don't be swayed because he's handsome and is deigning to smile at you._

Last Christmas at the Cullens had told her everything she needed to know about Edward Cullen.

**_AN: Thanks for all the reviews and helpful critiques! Keep them coming, it helps me get better. After this chapter, it's going to start heating up fast! We find out what Bella overheard Edward say that made her dislike him all this time. The trip hits ANOTHER unexpected delay...with steamy results._**

**_In the meantime, did you guys like Edward letting the flight attendant think they were a couple? Is Bella being unfair to Edward? Do you think she's going to be able to fight her growing attraction to Edward?_**


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